As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system may include one or more servers. In some applications, servers may be housed in a rack system. A 19-inch rack is a standardized system (e.g., EIA 310-D, IEC 60297, and/or DIN 41494 SC48D) which may be used to mount various electronic modules. Such electronic modules may be described as rack mounted, and may further be housed in a rack mount chassis. Such a chassis may include one or more walls configured to enclose components therein.
The height of a chassis or other rack mount component may be expressed as a multiple of a “unit” (e.g., 1U, 2U, and/or any other multiple of U), where the typical value for a unit is 1.75 inches or 44.45 millimeters. This standard rack arrangement is widely used throughout the information handling system industry, as well as in telecommunication, audio, and/or entertainment equipment.
1U server rack chassis are common modular components used in information handling systems. Structural integrity of the server rack chassis body may be important, not only for the protection of components housed within, but also to protect clearances and interfaces between the plurality of server rack chassis that may be present in a single rack. A condition known as sag occurs when any portion of the server rack chassis violates the rack space below the chassis.
Deformation of a housing may contribute to increased failure of surface mounted components within the housing. In modular components of information handling systems such as servers, deformation of a server rack chassis body may result in flexure of printed circuit boards, e.g., a motherboard. Flexure of a motherboard, for example, may result in increased failure of components surface mounted to the motherboard, e.g., a CPU socket, an I/O controller hub (ICH), and/or a memory controller hub (MCH).
It has been found that server rack chassis sag may be most prominent at the rear wall of the chassis body. Typical server rack chassis bodies include a rear wall of stamped sheet metal, e.g., steel and/or aluminum. The rear wall of a server rack chassis is often configured for allowing input/output connections from outside the chassis to the components contained therein. In addition, the rear wall is often punctured with vent openings in an attempt to increase the air flow in and/or out of the chassis body for cooling of the components therein. Each opening in a rear wall, whether for an input/output connection or for venting the chassis, may reduce the resistance of the rear wall to deformation.
In addition, server rack chassis bodies often contribute to the electromagnetic interference (EMI) and/or electrostatic discharge (ESD) transmission characteristics of the electronic components contained therein. Openings in the housing of a server rack chassis (e.g., the rear wall) may affect the EMI and/or ESD characteristics of a chassis body.